I used to own a cloth diaper service so I have experience with laundry and stains.

First, the baby's cloths, try soaking in a hot and strong solution of oxy-bleach, enzymes will help in the soak but they take 20 minutes or more so they don't work in most home washers.

Second, cloth diapers are great for everybody. The argument against them I hear most is the balance between wasted water and landfill space. It takes more water to manufacture a paper/plastic diaper than it does to wash a cloth diaper.

I used the diaper service pre-folds and they worked well. I tried the fitted types and they were fine but very expensive. My (and most of my customers) favorite covers were Bummis.

Washing them at home is not that big a job. When the baby is new, you don't need to flush the poop first. After she/he is eating it is a good idea to scrape them off with a dedicated plastic putty knife. 20 large diapers fit well into a machine. The easiest method is to wash them twice. First wash is warm with Arm and Hammer washing soda and detergent. Second wash hot with oxy-bleach alone. find out what the Ph of your tap water is. In Santa Fe, we had hard alkaline water so I added white vinegar to the final rinse. Here in Maryland's Eastern Shore I have soft acidic water, so no vinegar. I recommend using a dryer.

The washing soda opens up the fibers of the cotton to release the soil. The detergent carries it away. Use warm water to prevent setting the stains. The oxy-bleach sanitizes, whitens, and deodorizes. You can get Ph test kits at either a pool supply isle in the hardware store or the fish aquarium store.

After a while you will have some rusty brown stains that won't go away. They are iron, it is hard to digest and a lot passes through. They are removed with very hot vinegar poured directly on before washing.

I hope this was some help.

We use bac-out made by Bi-O-Kleen to remove baby stains. it is an enzyme based cleaner. The best thing ever that I have found though is to just put stains in direct sunlight for a few hours. It takes stains right out.

As far as cloth diapers, do an online search. There is just tons of info out there on cloth diapers and there are many, many different kinds. Something different works for everyone. We use a dry pail and just dump the diapers in there. Before my children start solid food (assuming you breastfeed), we didn't rinse diapers at all. After solid food, we used a little handheld sprayer attached to the toilet that is sold especially for cloth diapers. How often you wash depends on how many diapers you have. I put mine through a cold cycle and then a hot cycle with natural detergent, sometimes using vinegar in the rinse.

If you really want to go against the norm in terms of diapering and babies, you may want to look up the term "elimination communication." I have just been learning about this and find it just fasinating. I have several friends that use it with great success.

Oxy-clean dry powder is great--I put some in the scoop and add hot water then make a paste. It works well--rarely did it affect the dye on the fabric.

The best thing you can do is get to the stain right away or at least keep it moist. When my frequently pooping daughter was very small I kept a bucket of oxyclean water ready in the a.m. and just tossed the stained clothes in as they happened. I washed at the end of the day with more Oxy-clean, detergent and hot water--but check the stain before drying in the dryer--be sure it is gone or the dryer heat can "set" the stain.

I only rarely use bleach pens/bleach.

Getting stains out of your kids clothes can be really tough. My kids have bled on their clothes, stained them with grass, many different sauces, and what not and I’ve found that there is no easy way to remove hardcore stains like that. What I do though is soak the clothes in TSP for a few hours and then toss em in the washer. The TSP usually gets stains out but it can be a real hassle when you have a whole load of clothes waiting to soak. If this doesn’t work for ya, you may want to ask for new clothes as baby gifts and just throw the stained clothes out.

I have found the best way to get baby diaper accident stains out of baby clothes is the one handed down to me by my mother... to hand wash them with mild handsoap (like Ivory) prior to throwing them in the washing machine. This should be done as soon as possible after the accident and only with cold water.

Just wet the area and then rub the bar of soap directly on the affected area and then scrub by rubbing the two sides of the fabric together. This will release the material from the fabric. Rinse and repeat until all material is gone.

Don't worry if you don't get ALL of the material/color out. If you get the vast majority and then wash the garment in the washing machine while it is still wet, the rest will likely come out in the wash as it has already been loosened from the fibers by this process. (Feel free to wash the item in with the rest of the baby laundry btw with normal laundry soap but only on cold).

If you remove the item from the laundry and there is still a stain, try spraying some Oxyclean Baby on the area... works wonders. This can also probably be done from the onset, but I found it is not always reliable if the area to be treated is large.